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Where Your Treasure Is

Personal daily study · 10–20 minutes a day

  • Week 8
  • 📅 Feb 15–21, 2027
  • 📖 Matthew 6–7
Start with Monday
This week’s readingMatthew 6–7 in Gospel LibraryCome, Follow Me manualNew Testament 2027, week 8
🧭 This week

Matthew 6–7 finishes the Sermon on the Mount, and it moves from the outside of discipleship to the inside. Jesus asks who our giving, praying and fasting are really for, where our treasure and our hearts are, and what we do with worry about tomorrow. Then He turns to how we see other people, how we ask our Father for help, and how to recognize what is true by its fruit. He ends with two houses and one storm: the difference is not hearing His words but doing them. Read this week asking which of His sayings He wants you to do next.

Key verse

Matthew 7:24 ↗
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:”
In plain words: The Savior’s words become a foundation only when we live them. Hearing is the start; doing is what holds when the storm comes.

Day by day

Monday to Saturday read the week’s block a piece at a time; Sunday looks back over the week. Tap a reference to open it in Gospel Library.

Monday · 15 min

In Secret

Read todayMatthew 6:1–8

Chapter 5 ended with “Be ye therefore perfect” (5:48). Chapter 6 opens by asking why we do what we do. Giving alms and praying were sacred duties, and Jesus doesn’t discourage either one. He warns against doing them “to be seen of them” (6:1). The footnote to “hypocrites” explains that the Greek word means a play actor. And “They have their reward” uses a verb merchants wrote on receipts to mean paid in full: attention is all the payment that kind of goodness gets. The alternative is a closet with the door shut, and a Father who “seeth in secret” (6:6). Verse 8 adds a comfort: He knows what we need before we ask. We don’t pray to inform Him; we pray to draw near to Him.

🤔 Ponder
  • If no one ever knew about the good I do, would I still do it the same way?
  • What turns my prayers into “vain repetitions,” and what helps them feel like a real conversation?
  • If my Father already knows what I need (6:8), why does He still want me to ask?

🔗 Cross-references

  • Moroni 7:6–9 ↗Mormon teaches that a gift given grudgingly, or a prayer offered without real intent, profits nothing.
  • Alma 34:26 ↗Amulek counsels us to pour out our souls in our closets, our secret places and our wilderness.
  • 3 Nephi 13:1–8 ↗The risen Savior teaches the same words to the people gathered at the temple in Bountiful.
✍️ Journal

Write about a time you felt closest to Heavenly Father in private prayer. What made that prayer different?

✨ Try this todayFind a place today where you can shut a door, even for three minutes, and pray without hurrying or repeating yourself.
Tuesday · 15 min

After This Manner

Read todayMatthew 6:9–18

The Lord’s Prayer is a pattern more than a script: “After this manner therefore pray ye” (6:9). Notice its order. The Father’s name, His kingdom and His will come first; then daily bread, forgiveness and protection. The Joseph Smith Translation changes “lead us not into temptation” to “suffer us not to be led into temptation” (JST Matthew 6:14), since God does not lead anyone into sin. Of everything in the prayer, Jesus comes back to only one line: forgiveness (6:14–15). Then He turns to fasting, the third act of devotion, with the same counsel as before. Wash your face, go about your day, and let the fast be between you and your Father. It is an offering to Him, not a performance for anyone else.

🤔 Ponder
  • Which phrase of the Lord’s Prayer do I most need to mean this week?
  • Why might Jesus have chosen to repeat the line about forgiveness rather than any other?
  • What would it look like to fast this month in a way only my Father notices?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Rewrite the Lord’s Prayer in your own words, one phrase at a time, as it applies to your life today.

✨ Try this todayPray once today using the Savior’s pattern: honor the Father, ask for His will, name your daily needs, forgive and ask forgiveness, and ask for protection.
Wednesday · 15 min

Treasures in Heaven

Read todayMatthew 6:19–24

In Jesus’s world, wealth was often kept as fine clothing, which moths could ruin, or as metal and goods, which could corrode or be carried off. The footnote to “break through” says the Greek means to dig through, as through an earthen wall. Every earthly treasure was fragile. Jesus doesn’t forbid treasure; He tells us where to keep it, because “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (6:21). The heart follows the investment. Then comes the single eye (6:22–23); the footnote defines “single” as healthy, sincere, without guile. A focused life is full of light, and latter-day revelation ties that focus to God’s glory (D&C 88:67). Finally, no one can serve two masters (6:24).

🤔 Ponder
  • If someone looked at my calendar and my bank statement, where would they say my treasure is?
  • What is competing for my eye right now and keeping it from being single?
  • What treasure have I laid up in heaven that no one can take from me?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

List three things you treasure. Next to each, write whether moth and rust can reach it, and what that tells you.

✨ Try this todaySpend a little of today’s money or time on a treasure in heaven: a fast offering, a gift to someone in need, or an unhurried hour with a friend.
Thursday · 15 min

Take No Thought

Read todayMatthew 6:25–34

The footnote to “take no thought” says the Greek means anxious concern. Jesus is addressing worry, not wise planning. When He taught these words at Bountiful, He first looked upon the twelve He had chosen to minister and spoke them to them (3 Nephi 13:25), men who would leave their work and trust the Lord for their needs. His reasoning is gentle: birds don’t farm, yet they eat; lilies don’t spin, yet Solomon was never dressed so well; worry has never added a cubit to anyone. Then the heart of it: “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (6:32). The Joseph Smith Translation invites us to seek first “to build up the kingdom of God” (JST Matthew 6:38). Worry often shrinks when we are busy building.

🤔 Ponder
  • What am I most worried about this week? Have I told my Father about it plainly?
  • Where is the line in my life between wise planning and anxious worry?
  • What is one thing I could do today to build up the kingdom of God?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Write down the worry that takes up the most room in your head. Then write what Matthew 6:32 says your Father knows about it.

✨ Try this todayWhen a worry surfaces today, turn it into a one-sentence prayer, then do one small thing to serve someone else.
Friday · 15 min

Ask, Seek, Knock

Read todayMatthew 7:1–14

Chapter 7 opens with “Judge not,” which the Joseph Smith Translation clarifies: “Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged; but judge righteous judgment” (JST Matthew 7:2). We have to judge between right and wrong; what Jesus forbids is condemning others while ignoring ourselves. His picture is almost comic. The footnotes say a mote is a speck or splinter, and a beam is a timber used to build houses. Then the tone warms: ask, seek, knock (7:7). If imperfect parents give bread instead of a stone, “how much more” will our Father give good things to those who ask (7:11). The Golden Rule (7:12) sums up the law and the prophets, and a strait gate and narrow way lead to life (7:13–14).

🤔 Ponder
  • Where am I most tempted to judge unrighteously: at home, at church, online?
  • What have I stopped asking Heavenly Father for? What would it mean to keep knocking?
  • How would the Golden Rule change one conversation I’ll have this week?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Write about a time you asked, sought or knocked for a long time before an answer came. What did you learn while you waited?

✨ Try this todayBefore you speak about someone else today, check for your own beam first, then say something kind or nothing at all.
Saturday · 20 min

By Their Fruits

Read todayMatthew 7:15–29

Jesus warns of false prophets in sheep’s clothing and gives a plain test: “by their fruits ye shall know them” (7:20). Then He turns the same test on His own followers. Saying “Lord, Lord,” even doing impressive works in His name, is not enough; what counts is doing the will of the Father (7:21–23). The Joseph Smith Translation changes “I never knew you” to “Ye never knew me” (JST Matthew 7:33). Discipleship is a relationship, not a résumé. The sermon ends with two builders who face the same rain, floods and wind. One house stands because it was founded upon a rock. The people were astonished, because He taught “as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (7:29).

🤔 Ponder
  • What fruit is my discipleship producing in the people closest to me?
  • Am I busier doing things for the Lord than getting to know Him? What would change if I reversed that?
  • Which of the Savior’s sayings from this week am I hearing but not yet doing?

🔗 Cross-references

  • Luke 6:46 ↗Jesus asks why we call Him Lord and do not do what He says.
  • Helaman 5:12 ↗Helaman teaches his sons to build on the rock of our Redeemer, so the devil’s storms will have no power over them.
  • Moroni 7:5 ↗Mormon repeats the Savior’s test: people are known by their works.
✍️ Journal

Write about a storm that tested your foundation. What held, and what did you learn about where you had built?

✨ Try this todayChoose one saying of Jesus from Matthew 6–7 and do it today in a specific, visible-to-God way.
Sunday · 15 min

Hearers and Doers

Read todayMatthew 7:24–27

Return to the two builders. Both heard the same sermon. Both faced the same storm, described in the same words: rain descended, floods came, winds blew and beat upon the house (7:25, 27). The only difference was what each one did with what he heard. When the risen Savior introduced the sacrament to the Nephites, He used this image again: those who always do these things are built upon His rock, and those who do more or less are on a sandy foundation (3 Nephi 18:12–13). The sacrament is a weekly chance to check the foundation. As you take the bread and water today, choose one of the Savior’s sayings from this week and promise to do it.

🤔 Ponder
  • Which saying from Matthew 6–7 moved from my head to my heart this week?
  • Where in my life am I building on sand without realizing it?
  • How can today’s sacrament be a real recommitment to do, not just to hear?

🔗 Cross-references

  • 3 Nephi 18:12–13 ↗After introducing the sacrament, the Savior says those who keep His commandments are built upon His rock.
  • James 1:22 ↗James echoes the sermon: be doers of the word, and not hearers only.
✍️ Journal

Look back over the week and write the one saying of Jesus you most want to be doing a year from now, and your first step.

✨ Try this todayTell a family member or friend which of the Savior’s sayings you’re working on this week, and ask them to check in with you.

From general conference

“Please note in this verse that the Savior is not the foundation. Rather, we are admonished to build our personal spiritual foundation upon Him.”

— Elder David A. Bednar, ““Be Still, and Know That I Am God”,” April 2024

Read on Saturday with Helaman 5:12, or on Sunday as you ponder the two builders.

Read the talk ↗

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Start with the scriptures and the official Come, Follow Me manual; these notes are here to help you study.

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